USS Tardis
by Alexandria Richards
Summary: The Doctor finds a call for help from a ship centuries into the future and brings his companion Ari along to investigate. The ship in question is hauntingly familiar to Ari, but the Doctor warns against meddling in events and destroying the time streams forever.
1. Chapter 1

My personality is not the sort that fictional characters are modeled after.

Not good ones at least.

I am a Bella Swan in a world of Ethan Hunts, Sherlocks and Captain Americas. I live a completely ordinary life, in an ordinary town, and I work at an ordinary job.

That is, I did until the Doctor showed up. He showed up and he made my life something exciting.

"Come on, Ari. We've got an adventure today!" the Doctor said, leaning out of the TARDIS which was currently parked in my living room. He had a wicked smile plastered across his face, instead of his normal grumpy expression.

"Alright, future or past?" I asked, tugging on my old grey beanie and stepping into the old time machine. "Cause I don't fancy running into vikings again."

"Oh, don't worry, we're going to the future. I've got a distress call from a spaceship somewhere around 2264. By this time, humans have discovered warp travel, and are able to cross the galaxy in less than an hour."

Huh. Sounded cool. "Any idea what this ship is called? Or where in the galaxy it's gonna be?"

"Nope. Not in the slightest." He flipped a switch on the TARDIS console and the ancient systems whirred to life. Nothing in the universe ever made that sound, except the TARDIS. I loved that noise.

Without warning, the TARDIS rocked under my feet, sending me and the Doctor to the floor.

"What the hell is going on?!" I shouted.

The Doctor pulled himself to his feet and stared at the TARDIS's monitor. "The TARDIS doesn't like where we're going. Something is wrong with the timestreams, as if… no." The Doctor paled. "As if someone's created a second timeline. Rewritten history. That shouldn't be possible."

The TARDIS suddenly stopped rocking, and went silent.

"Are we here?" I asked.

"Yeah. But we'd better be careful. If an alternate timeline _has_ been created, then reality may be highly unstable."

I nodded, and picked myself up off the floor.

The Doctor opened the TARDIS door and peeked his head out. "Seems normal," he muttered. "We seem to have landed in the engine room. Not a soul in sight."

I walked over and pushed past the Doctor, looking around at the shiny chrome of the new ship.

"This color scheme is _really _familiar," I said.

"Well, yeah," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "You grew up on science fiction stories and movies. Spaceships aren't going to look as alien to you as they would to, say, someone from the nineteen-twenties."

"Sure. Makes sense. Now how do we get out of here?"

"Erm...here." The Doctor ran over to what looked like a TV screen and pulled out a pair of sunglasses.

"Really? Sunglasses?"

"They're sonic," the Doctor explained. He put them on and pressed a hidden button. The sunglasses buzzed like his screwdriver used to.

"Why the change?" I asked.

"Eh. Got a new style."

"Is that why there's a guitar in the TARDIS now, too?"

"Something like that. Aha!" The monitor lit up, showing a map of the ship.

I stared, taking in all the information "No...is that-"

"Okay, so there's a staircase to our right...no, left. Go up there and it should take us to what looks like the med bay-"

"Doctor, do you recognize this ship?"

He stared at me, confused. "No. Why? Do you?"

"I think so."

The Doctor scowled. "That's not possible. This ship is _centuries _after your time-"

"I know, I know, but… I've seen this design before. Something from an old movie. Well, I say old. It was about 2009, maybe 2010 when it came out."

Somewhere above us, an intercom beeped. "May I have your attention, please. At 2200 hours, telemetry detected at an anomaly in the neutral zone. What appeared to be a lightning storm in space. Soon after, Starfleet received a distress signal from Vulcan High Command-"

"Holy hell," I breathed, and took off sprinting towards the stairs.

"Ari, _wait_!" the Doctor shouted.

I ignored him and ran upstairs, and found myself in horribly familiar white hallways. The spotless black floor reflected each person who walked on it, making copies of the red, yellow, and blue uniform shirts and dresses. A few people had to jump out of the way as I careened past, the Doctor close behind me.

"Ari, we can't just go running around the ship without knowing what's going on!" the Doctor called after me as I reached a lift and began furiously pressing the button.

"Doctor, I _know_ what's going on! I know what's gonna happen and I gotta stop it."

"What are you talking about?"

"This ship. I know this ship, I know that voice over the intercom, I know these uniforms and the pins on their chests, and I know these hallways. It's the USS Enterprise."

"How could you possibly know that?"

The lift opened up and I jumped inside. "Are you coming with me?" I asked. The Doctor grumbled something about _this is ridiculous_ and stepped into the lift just before the doors closed.

"That movie I was talking about? It's called 'Star Trek.' This ship is in it. So is everyone on it. That guy over the intercom was named Ensign Pavel Andreivich Chekov."

"So there just happens to be a movie in your time that matches the events of the future?" the Doctor asked, incredulous. "How is that possible? No, it _isn't_ possible. Are you absolutely sure that's where we are?"

"Positive. Chekov was talking about a lightning storm in space near a planet called Vulcan. There's only one thing that could cause that. Only _one _ship, and the Enterprise is headed towards an ambush." I tapped my foot impatiently. The lift was taking _so long._

"Ari, listen to me: If you change events, if you tell the people on this ship what's going to happen, you're just going to further destroy the integrity of the time streams."

I glared at the Doctor, and he grabbed my wrist as the lift door opened.

"Don't do anything stupid," he warned.

I yanked my wrist back and walked confidently towards the bridge.


	2. Chapter 2

The bridge was a scene of chaos already when I got there.

A blond man was arguing with an older, authoritative-looking man while two blue-shirt-wearing men (one with perfect posture and pointed ears, the other trying desperately to stop the blond from doing something stupid) stood nearby.

The blonde man looked distressed. "Look, sir, that same anomaly-"

"Mister Kirk-"

"Mister Kirk is not cleared to be aboard this vessel," the man with pointed ears pointed out.

Kirk turned to him, seeming tired of listening. "Look, I get it, you're a great orator, I'd love to do it again with you-"

"I can remove the cadet-"

"TRY it, this cadet is trying to save the bridge."

"He's right," I said, voice coming out a little squeaky. The entire bridge turned to me.

"How did you get aboard this ship?" the man with pointed ears.

"Magic," I said sarcastically. "But Mister Kirk is right. The Enterprise is headed into a trap."

"Based on what facts?"

"Yeah, how do you know this?" Kirk asked me.

I laughed nervously. "I uh… I'm a time traveller. I know what's gonna happen because it's a sort of story where I come from."

"That's ridiculous," the older man said. "What proof do you have?"

"Well for starters I can tell you at least the last names of everyone on this bridge, and most of their first names, too. I can tell you their jobs, a few of you I can tell you what your family was like." I stepped forward. "And I can tell you exactly how this mission is going to go if you don't stop right now."

"Do it then," Kirk said. "What are our names?"

I pointed at him. "James T. Kirk." Pointed ears. "Spock." The older man. "Captain Christopher Pike." The other man by Kirk in the blue shirt. "Doctor Leonard McCoy." The pilot. "Hikaru Sulu." The navigator. "Pavel Chekov. Do I need to continue?"

Everyone looked at me in stunned silence.

"Impressive, but you very easily could have looked up our profiles in the StarFleet database," Spock said.

"Ok fine. You don't believe me, and that is pretty good reasoning for why I know what I know.

"But there is no way I can know what people used to say about your eyes. Unless I'm a time traveller."

Spock's expression did not change. "What did people say about my eyes?" He asked. He thought I was bluffing, didn't he?

"That they were human. That they looked sad. And they still do, by the way. Your eyes look sad because you think you don't fit in anywhere."

"Alright that's enough," Pike said, cutting me off. "You were asked to prove you were a time traveller, not insult my crew."

"Do you believe me though?"

"Look, why does any of this matter?" Kirk said, impatient. "We already know that Vulcan is in danger, what difference does it make that this… time-traveller, I guess, knows, too?"

Pike glanced between me and Kirk. "You two better not be wrong about this," he warned. "Shields up, red alert."

Kirk gave me an odd look before turning to face the front of the bridge where everyone was anxiously watching the viewscreen.

"Arrival at Vulcan in five seconds," Sulu announced. "Four, three, two…"

We dropped out of warp into sheer chaos. I was expecting it, of course, but that didn't make it any less terrifying.

"Emergency evasive," PIke ordered.

I felt someone grab my arm and pull me from the bridge back into the corridor.

"Are you happy now?" the Doctor asked. "We've just landed in the middle of a war. You've thrown the whole ship into chaos!"

"That wasn't my fault! This was gonna happen whether I was here or not!" The ship jolted sideways and I grabbed the wall to stay on my feet. "There's this guy named Nero. He's a romulan from the future and he's out to get Spock for failing to save his planet. He's gonna destroy Vulcan, then all the other federation planets."

"You didn't tell that to the crew, did you?"

"No. I haven't told them anything that they didn't already know."

The Doctor sighed. "So you haven't destroyed the timelines yet. Come on, we need to get back to the TARDIS."

"What? We're just gonna leave them?"

"You said it yourself, didn't you? Everything happens just fine whether you're here or not. And I would love to help them, but once you know what happens, you become part of history. I can't fix this." The doctor began to walk back to the TARDIS.

"Fine," I said. "But I'm not leaving. I won't change anything, but I want to see this for myself."

"Augh! You're so damn stubborn, can't you see that this, you being here, is going to destroy what you know about this story?"

"I don't care. And besides, it is just a story, so why does it matter?"

"Because, Ari, these are people's lives at stake! You don't! Get! To mess with that!"

"But what if I can save someone? Just one person."

"You don't get to play God. If you do this, if you mess with the fabric of reality, then we're done." The Doctor's voice was dangerously low.

I looked him in the eye for a few seconds.

"Okay." I turned on my heel and walked back onto the bridge, not waiting for a response.

"He'll kill you, you know that," Kirk was telling Pike.

"Your survival is unlikely," Spock agreed.

"Captain, we gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake."

"I, too, agree. You should rethink your strategy."

Pike, suddenly, turned to me. "Well, time-traveller? What do you think we should do, if you know what happens?"

I stood up a bit straighter and tried to look confident. "Umm… send people down to the drill to disable it. Then you'll get your communication and transport abilities back. Of course, you will have to talk to Nero. The Enterprise won't get away otherwise."

"Absolutely not!" Kirk shouted.

"Mister Kirk, it is in the entire crew's best interest to save as many lives as possible-"

"Hey, HEY!" Spock and Kirk were cut off by Pike. "Look, um…" he motioned at me.

"Ari."

"Ari- thank you- is right. And besides, that's what my plan was going to be anyway. I need officers who have been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat."

Sulu raised his hand. "I have training, sir."

"Come with me. Kirk, you too. You're not supposed to be here anyway. Spock, Ari is your responsibility from now on. Chekov, you have the conn."

"Aye aye, sir."

I followed Pike, Spock, and Kirk off the bridge and to the engineering sector of the ship. The Doctor was nowhere in sight.

"Without transporters," Pike said, "we can't beam off the ship, we can't assist Vulcan, we can't do our job. Mister Kirk, Mister Sulu, you and Engineer Olson will space-jump from the shuttle. You will land on that machine they lowered into the atmosphere that's scrambling our gear. You'll get inside. You'll disable it, then you'll beam back to the ship." Pike stepped into an open lift. "Mister Spock, I'm leaving you in command of the Enterprise. Once we have transport capabilities, communications back up, you'll contact Starfleet, report what the hell's going on here. And if all else fails, fall back, rendezvous with the fleet in the Laurentian system. Kirk, I'm promoting you to first officer."

"What?" Kirk said, confused but not totally disappointed.

Spock, however, looked like he'd rather have me as first mate than Kirk. "Captain, please. I apologize, the complexity of human pranks escape me."

"This isn't a prank, Spock. And I'm not the captain, you are," Pike said.

"Sir," Kirk cut in, "after we disable the drill, what happens to you?"

"Well, I suppose you'll have to come and get me. Be careful with the ship, Spock. She's brand new." With that, the lift closed on Sulu, Kirk, Pike, and Olsen, leaving me and Spock alone.

"Are you absolutely certain that this is the most logical course of action?" Spock asked.

"Yeah. Yes. Sort of."

Spock's expression changed at my response. Anyone who hadn't been watching Star Trek for the past nine years would never have noticed it. "You just sent four men on a mission that could end in their deaths and you are not completely sure of your plan?"

"The reality I know doesn't include me existing in this timeline. I could have doomed you all just by being here but I'm trying my best. I am trying to keep you guys along the timeline that I know, since that seemed to be the most successful way to do things."

Spock studied my face for a few seconds, probably trying to tell if I was lying. Without a word, he turned and began to walk back to the bridge.

I'll be honest, I always admired Spock as a character, but he terrified me at the same time.


End file.
